Florence and the Machine - Lungs

When I first started the CD spinning (or, more accurately, hit play on Spotify) I was hugely disappointed that here was another young female singer, having been brought up on her parents' Kate Bush records, trying to create that 'alternative sound', and instead sounding like all those other singers that think London-sound is cool. The voice is reminiscent of Kate Nash, Laura Marling and, dare I say, Lily Allen, and the first track, Dog Days Are Over doesn't do anything to dispel this.

However, as the album continues. her accent very quickly melts into the background as you get carried away into a jolting, almost tribal wall of music. Every song is like a great book; you really can't put them down until you've found out how they finish. An underlying pattern of verse-chorus is hidden under the evolving drums, guitars, harps that build up and up until you can't help yourself joining in. Drumming Song opens with a pattern of drums that's reminiscent of 'People Party' by the relatively unknown band, "For Stars" and builds into an epic that makes you feel like you're flying through the Amazon rainforest at the speed of sound in the arms of a superhero that you're passionately in love with. Your face is being scratched by the creepers as you fly, and you're missing getting to see the monkeys, but damn you just don't care!

In short, this Florence has a massively powerful voice and can't half write a tune, and is clearly supported by some incredible musicians. I have been surprised, but pleasantly so! Yes it's easy to like, and yes it's going to be hugely popular, but that shouldn't be a reason to ignore something that is both pleasing to the ear and intrigues the mind. I for one am delighted that popular music is going in this direction - people are starting to think about their music again.

Sum

I've just read "Sum" by David Eagleman. I didn't intend to buy it, and I'd never heard of it before this afternoon, but I was drawn to it in Waterstones today, and am incredibly glad I was. It's one of the most unique fiction books I've read in ages. It consists of fourty short (2-4 pages) narratives explaining how the afterlife might be. It expounds beautifully on the huge range of possibilities that our universe presents, and how no-one really knows the answer to any ultimate questions.

A particular favourite quote of mine comes from 'Missing' where it is explained that God is in fact a married couple, and that when you die, you enter a parent-child relationship with them. I love how cleanly it explains the synergism between science and religion

"Every human in the world is a child to them, and they devote a tremendous effort to their parenting skills.
It is heartening to see that they learn from us in the same manner that all parents learn from their children. For example it turns out they didn't know how to express the workings of their universe as equations, so they are greatly impressed with the ideas of their physicist children, who phrase clearly for them for the first time what they wrought"

This is a fantastic book, and I would unreservedly recommend it to anyone. It's well thought out, imaginative, unique, entertaining, humorous and moving, all at once.